Roofing shingle



May 15, 1928.

w. A. HARRIS ROOFING SHINGLE Filed Fb'. 27, 1925 ZUZZZZQWL May 15, 1928.

WILLI i1 A. HARRIS, F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNGR 1'0 THE FLINTKOTE COMP, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

nooriue SHINGJLE.

Application filed February 2 7, 1925. Serial No. 11,967.

This invention has relation to asphalt roofing shingles such as may be cut from a sheet of prepared roofing material comprising rag or asbestos felt saturated with asphalt or other equivalent waterproofing material, coated on one or both faces with relatively high-melting-point asphalt such as blown asphalt and surfaced with a layer of partially embedded crushed slate or other mineral having the desired color.

The object of the present invention is to provide shingles which may be laid widely spaced so that a maximum area of roof surface may be covered with a minimum num- 16 her of shingles which will so interlock when laid with others that the exposed'ends will be held tightly in place and so that difierent designs may be formed be desired.

I W The shingles disclosed and claimed in this application are of the general type of shingles described and claimed in my co-pending a plication Serial No. 11,964, filed February 2 1925, and no claim to the genus is made '8 herein.

Figure On the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 illustrates how the shingles may be produced from a strip of roofing material without waste.

2 represents one of the shingles.

Figure 3 illustrates how the shingles may be so laid that their exposed portions form one design.

Figure 4 illustrates how theshingles may be laid so that their exposed portions form another design. t

Figure 5 illustrates one of the shingles with its lowentab-carrying end underfolded so as to lie below the body of the shingle.

Figure 6 represents an edge view of the lower portion of the shingle with the fold slightly separated from the body portion a distance equal to the thickness of the shingle material;

Figure 7 represents a similar view with the under fold fiat against the body portion.

Figures 8 and 9 illustrate how the two shingles indicated in Figures 6 and 7 may be laid so that their exposed portions produce slightly differing geometrical figures.

In Figure embodying the present invention, which has the top and bottom horizontal parallel edges 1 and 2. The shingle may be considered as comprising an upper portion 3 and a lower on the roof as may 2 I have illustrated a shingleportion 4 with an intermediate zone indicated at 5 and lying between the dotted lines a a and 6-6." The upper and-lower portlons are of substantially the same length longitudinally of the shingle. As illustrated the upper portion 3 tapers downwardly and has the side edges 6, 6 which aredownward- 1y converging and which terminate at the dotted line aa. The lower portion 4 is much narrower than the upper portion and 1t has the downwardly converging side edges 7, 7 which lie inside of but are parallel to imaginary downward extensions of the side edges 6, 6. At the butt end of the shingle there are two oppositely and laterally proectlng tabs indicated at-8, 8 and in the up per corners of the upper portion 3 of the shmgle there are recesses 9, 9 of the same size and shape'as the tabs 8. The ends of the tabs may be in alinement with. the side edges 6, 6 of the shingle. In the intermediate or horizontally median zone 5 of the shingle there are formed the inwardly ex tending shoulders 10, 11 between which lie the edges 12. The shoulders 10 are more widely spaced apart than the shoulders 11 and they are separated longitudinally of the shingle by the side edges 12, 12. On each side of the shingle the adjacent shoulders 10 and 11 are in stepped relation. Shingles such as described may be cut from a sheet of prepared asphalt roofing material such as first herein described without waste. as

illustrated in Figure 1. The sheet, which is usually in Width several times the length of the shingle, is slit longitudinally and is cut crosswise on broken lines of severance so that the upper portion of one shingle is cut from the material next'the lower portion of the next potential shingle to be out. That is the out which forms the side edges of the upper portion of one shingle forms the side edge of the lower portion of the nextshingle to be cut, andvice versa, the shoulders 10 and 11 and the edge 12 of one shingle being complemental to the shoulders and edge of the next shingle to be cut. Thus, as shown in Fig. 1, the entire contour of a shingle is symmetrical with respect to its mid-point which must lie on the trans verse median of the shingle. of contour of each side of the shingle necessarily follows the cutting from a strip successive shingles which are of the same shape This symmetry to the width of the strip. The tabs 8 on the lower end of each shlngle are cut from the corners of the upper portions of the next adjacent shingles which are formed from the stri Shing es such as described may be laid in several different ways so that their exposed surfaces produce different geon'letrical designs. They may be laid as illustrated in Figure in which their exposed portions form a six-sided figure having parallel upper and lower edges but of greater length than width; or the shingles may be laid as shown in Figure 4, in which the exposed portions present a diiferent but pleasing geometrical design or figure. In both cases the shingles of each row are interlocked with adjacent shingles of the upper and lower rows. In laying the shingles as inFiguro 3, the lateral end tabs 8 of eachshingle extend under the lower end portions of two laterally adjacent shingles of the next lower row and engage the inner ends of the shoulders 11. In this instance the upper portion of each shingle is rather widely overlapped laterally by the lower portions of the laterally adjacent shingles of the next higher row. The upper portion of each shingle is further overlapped for some distance by the longitudinally alined shingle of the second higher row.

The extent to which the shingles may overlap and be overlapped by others may be decreased by laying the shingles as shown in Figure 4. In this case the laterally projecting tabs 8 extend under the middle zone 5 of the laterally adjacent shingles of the next lower row and are engaged with the shoulders 10. In this way a difl'erent geometric design or figure is formed by the exposed portion of each shingle, and the shingles are more widely spaced horizontally and more widely spaced vertically. That is to say, the shingles of each horizontal row are more widely spaced apart than in Figure 3, and the extent to which each shingle overlaps or is overlapped by the alined shingles of the second higher and the second lower horizontal rows is less than when the shingles are laid as in Figure 3. The shingles are nailed to the roof boards by nails passed above the shoulders 11. as indicated at 16, the lower exposed end of each shingle being locked in place by the interlocking of the tabs 8 with the adjacent shingles.

At the bottom end'ot the shingle the tabcarrying extremity thereof may be folded under the body portion as shown in Figure 5, so that the tabs 8 project from below the side edges 7, 7. The undertold may lie flat against and be adherent to the body portion of the shingle as shown in Figure 7 or it may be slightly spaced therefrom the thickness of the shingle material as illustrated in Figure 6. In any event, the thickness of the butt end of the shingle is thereby increased and is stiflened, and the space between each shingle and the alincd shingle overlapped thereby is filled so as to increase the insurance against the beating of rain up under the exposed portions of the shingles. The flexibility of the shingles permits them to be laid as described, and to lie flush upon the surfaces of the overlapped portions of adjacent shingles.

In Figure 8 I have shown how the shingles shown in Figure 6 may be laid so that the tabs will underlie the shoulders 7 of the adjacent shingles with which they are engaged. In Figure 9 I have illustrated the appearance of the shingles when they are folded under as indicated in Figure 7. Of course the shingles of either Figures 6 and 7 may be laid to produce the geometric figures shown in Figure '4: instead of the hexagonal designs as shown in Figures 3, 8 and 9.

Whereas the pairs of diflerently spaced shoulders 10, 10 and 11, 11 at the side edges of the intermediate zone of the shingle in Figure 2 are convergent, this is not essential, since the shoulders of each pair may be alined and thus parallel to the top and bottom edges of the shingle, as indicated at 13, 13 and 14:, 14:, in Figure 5. In such case the side edges 15 are longer than those at 12 in Figure 2. Figures 8 and 9 represent shin gles having pairs of shoulders like those in Figure 2; but, with the pairs of shoulders as shown in Figure 5, the extent of Ion itudinal overlap would be diminished. n each side of the shingle the adjacent shoul== ders 13 and 14 are in stepped relation.

One of the advantages of the shingles which I have illustrated and described is that they ensure proper spacing of the shin= gles in vertical and in horizontal rows, that difi'erent geometric designs at their exposed portions may be formed, and that they are so interlocked as to prevent the lower ends from being raised by wind, and further that in their" formation there is .no waste material.

The two pairs of differently spaced shoulders on the shingles as herein described perform the important function of determinin or limiting the varying extents to whic each shingle is longitudinally and laterally overlapped by the adjacent shingles of the next higher row and thereby of causing the exposed portion of each shingle to present difl'erent geometrical figures or designs.

What I claim is 1. A flexible roofing shingle, adapted to be laid widely spaced with other like shingles in over-lapping horizontal rows, comprising an upper portion of tapering Width, a narrower lower portion of tapering width,

and an intermediate transverse zone having at each side edge of the-shingle a pair of shoulders in stepped relation, the said lower portion having at its end a pair of laterally projecting tabs, and the contours of the sides of the shingle being mutually complemental.

2. A flexible roofing shingle having laterally projecting tabs at its lower end, and having in a transverse zone between its ends and at its sides a plurality of pairs of differently spaced shoulders with any pair of which may be engaged the lateral tabs of laterally adjacent shingles,'the contours of the sides of the shingle being mutually'complemental.

3( A flexible roofing shingle having laterally projecting tabs at its lower end and a plurality of pairs of stepped shoulders between the ends, either side of the shingle having a contour symmetrical with respect to the mid-point of said side.

* In testimony whereof I have aflixed my 20 signature. I

WILLIAM A. HARRIS. 

